The invention relates to mass spectrometry, and in particular to methods of optimizing operating parameters of mass spectrometers.
In tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS), a mass spectrometer is used to isolate an ion species of interest, selectively excite and fragment the isolated ions, and detect daughter ions resulting from the fragmentation. The fragmentation process, commonly achieved by collision-induced dissociation, or CID, may be performed by applying a dipolar sine wave across the endcaps of a quadrupole ion trap. The properties of an applied CID voltage waveform may affect the efficiency of the CID process.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,124,591, Schwartz et al. describe a method of generating product ions in a quadrupole ion trap. The amplitude of the applied excitation voltage for an ion of a given mass-to-charge ratio (m/z) is linearly related to the mass-to-charge ratio.